Search Function For Certain Files Is Not Working

Jun 30, 2005

When I use Windows XP search to search within files for certain text it is not working. I know what I am searching for is there, but it cannot find it.I found an article from MS which advised me to turn indexing off, which I did and it does still not work.

For some time now I have not been able to use my Windows XP Search function. It doesn't even start up, from either of the two spots I use it. The first is by clicking the Start Menu, and clicking Search; the second is by right clicking My Computer and clicking Search. Both do nothing when clicked (at all, not even an hour glass or anything). It's almost as if teh executable for the function has disappeared. I have been pulling my hair out for a couple months now. I have searched many forums and have tried the fixes such as registry keys; running (regsvr32 C:WINDOWSsrchasstsrchui.dll); running sfc /scannow; kellys-korner help pages;

1) By mistake i uninstalled the AVG free Antivirus Installed at my system, Since than i am unable to re-install it. Every time I try it, it shows an error report:Local machine: installation failedInstallation:Error: Action failed for file avg7dos.lng: creating file....Changing language to 67698688 failed

My "Search" fonction does not start. I used it without problems for months but when asked I get now only the first window with the dog and nothing else.When I click ctrl + Alt + Suppr I get: "Search not responding".I tried to set the system to several previous restore points: No result

Occasionally when I search for a file or folder using Start>Search I get a report that one or more files were found but they don't get displayed in the display box. Sometimes, when I redo the search the results will get displayed. Does anyone have any idea how I might correct this problem? I have XP Home Edition.

For some time now I have been unable to use the windows xp search function. It starts out all right but always crashes before it completes anything. Sometimes it actually manages to find some files before it crashes.I cannot see any pattern as to a specific location causing it to crash. Originally I thought it was doing it cuz I had WordPerfect open whenever I started the search, but recent attempts to run a search with NO programs open give me the same crashes.

Whenever I try to use the Start|Search|For Files or Folders function of Windows XP, I get the following Error message box stating, "A file required to run Search Companion cannot be found. You may need to run Setup". (1) Does anyone have any idea what caused this problem? (2) What file is missing? (3) Can I fix it without having to run Setup?

would any one know how i can restore the SEARCH function on my pc? i think my problem started when i uninstalled software, even though the uninstall went smoothly and without any obvious problems. whenever i click on START/SEARCH i get a message stating: "a file required to run SEARCH COMPANION cannot be found. you may need to run setup". i get the same error message when trying to search inside a folder.i'm running XP, and only have a recovery cd for WINDOWS, so if part of the remedy requires the full WINDOWS OS software, i'm out of luck.

It has been some time now the find button on the start list has disappeared...The search option in the folder view of the windows explorer disappeared too and the F3 key has no effect whatsoever (except when I use it inside Firefox.then it starts the firefox page search feature).This "may" have happened some time ago when I tried the "Windows desktop search" program that I didn't like and uninstalled later?)Anyway here I am using Google desktop which is too memory hungry (its database occupies 4GB on my C drive).I tried googling the internet and found 2 or 3 solutions that failed with me .Is there a solution?

Since moving to Win XP I have found that Win Explorer Search Files & Folders function does not work properly (as Win 98 did).I need to search a subset of the files (for example *.pas) to find a file containing a string (for example TLargeInteger). Win 98 would have found this but Win XP returns with no item found when there is definitely a file(s) with that string in it in plain text (ie not unicode). Is there some subtle selection I am not making or is the Win XP Search function broken.

At the end of November, the folks over in the Security forum were kind enough to walk me through a huge problem I was having. My computer has never been better except for one small thing. my "search" function doesn't work. The little doggy is there and if I enter something and then ask it to search files and folders (or anything for that matter), it goes off to search and then nothing happens. Eventually I get the "Program not Responding" window and when I close it, my desktop blinks off for a second and then my Norton systray button is missing.It's weird and I'm sure I deleted something inadvertently while I was getting rid of that terrible trojan. I was just wondering if someone had a suggestion so that I could restore that function. If not, I'll leave it alone because I'm just happy to have my computer back to normal almost. I thought I was going to have to throw it away until those guys saved it for me.

It seems that this problem surfaces every once in awhile. I have not been able to connect it to any actions done previous to its occurrence. The problem is that when I attempt to search in windows I get a "Unknown error" message. In the past I have gone to reinstalling Windows but that is rather tedious. So if there is any other way to get the Search function back I would like to know what it is.

I seem to have done something that has knocked out my Start Search (or was it start find) function. when I click on start search, I get a kind of disabled Internet Explorer box instead of the familiar search options with the usual buttons for location, file name, etc. This seems to have happened shortly after I got rid of the animated character and did a lot of other XP performance tweaks. I did turn the indexing service off but turned it back on and that did not help

The search function in windows xp appears to be disabled. Clicking on the Search button in any window has no effect. This might or might not be related to a second problem I'm experiencing. System Restore has been mysteriously turned off and I cannot turn it back on. Checking off the 'Turn off System Restore' checkbox and clicking on 'Apply' results in the following message: "System Restore encountered an error trying to enable one or more drives. Please restart your maching and try again." Restarting, of course, has no effect. Btw, the 'Status' section of the System Restore window indicates the following: "(C) Turned off. Not sure what that means.

I tried to change the start button text just now (following the instructions here: http://www.theeldergeek.com/change_s...utton_text.htm) but I ended up not liking it because the search function was rendered unusable. Anyway, I read that there was another way to do it by just renaming the original explorer.exe (to something like ORIGINALexplorer.exe) and replacing it with the modified version (now named, explorer.exe) and putting that in C:/Windows. This way, there's no need to go into the registry and the search function is still usable.

Apparently there are folders that I just can't see In searching for where my captured video files were, my search function aimed me at c:documents and settingsall users documentsmy videos. When I looked in c:documents and settingsall users, there is no 'documents' folder I went through the process of changing my folder options I had already checked 'show hidden folders', but unchecked 'hide extentions for known file types' and clicked 'apply to all folders', but it still doesn't appear

What ever happened to the nice Windows Search function? All of a sudden I have something called Desktop Search. My Windows used to find anything on my entire HDD. Now it returns no results in a fraction of a second if what I'm looking for is not actually on the desktop. What's going on here?

basically every time I start my computer I get the error in the title of this thread. I searched for it using the search function and no "userint32.exe" exists on my computer.what does that file do and how important is it?can it be replaced or disabled so that windows doesn't search for it at start up?

I have a HP Celeron Laptop with Win XP installed. Whenever, I am going to use the Search function from Start Menu, it is giving an Error Message saying that a file required to run Search Companion can not be found. I need to run setup again. How can I solve the problem without running setup.

I have an unusual problem with the windows restore function on my computer. It seems to still be making automatic restore points periodically along with the ones that I create. However, I am unable to restore to any of the earlier time points. I have used all of the virus and adware/spyware programs on my computer to check for problems and they all report my computer as clean. Does anybody have any idea of what might be causing this or any suggestions to repair this without reinstalling the entire system again?

I use Windows XP Media Edition and yesterday the Add/Remove Programs function on my control panel quit working. The message comes up please wait while the list is being populated and then nothing else happens. The longest I waited was 45 minutes while I went off and did something else. The list never appeared. All of the other functions in the control panel seem to be working.Everything seems to have slowed down on my computer. It is a Pentium(R) CPU 3.60 GHz 2 GB of RAM Service Pack 2 Version 2002 I bought it at Frys Electronics. Does anyone have any suggestions for the Add/Remove Programs glitch? Am I about to lose a hard drive?

is there a way in Windows XP to turned off searching in *.zip during the Search command? I search multiple network drives serveral times a day for files and do not need to search in the *.zip files. By searching the *.zip files the time is greatly increased. When I had Windows 2000 the search would take about 1 minute (did not search *.zip files) and now in Windows XP the search takes over 12 and half minutes (1079 *.zip files)I did a test by making all the *.zip hidden and did the search again - averaged about 59 seconds. Unforunately, I have to leave the *.zip files as not hidden.Any ideas?

I'm using a toshiba tecra laptop with windows xp. i've been going through my music files for the last week pretty heavily (which i store in My Shared Folder), and since there are so many of them, i just right-click the My Shared Folder icon, go to Search, and locate the mp3 I'm looking for that way. that has been working fine for the last three years, and last night, it just stopped working. kaput. now, when i do exactly the same thing i've always been doing, it searches for a fraction of a second, then tells me there are no results. so i tried going to start menu - search to find the mp3, and it does find the mp3 that way, but it takes a hell of a lot longer to find it than it normally does. and it's not because the computer is searching other areas of the drive; i see it searching My Shared Folder, and it takes four times longer to go through each music sub-folder as it used to.